Christine Quinn to endorse Bill de Blasio

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, once a frontrunner in the Democratic mayoral primary, is set to endorse Bill de Blasio today.

Christine Quinn on the campaign trail in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Quinn is set to endorse Bill de Blasio for Democratic mayoral nominee today. Credit: Bess Adler/Metro

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is set to endorse Bill de Blasio for the Democratic mayoral candidate today.

Quinn, once the obvious frontrunner in the race, came in third on Primary Day last Tuesday with a little under 16 percent.

Asked later if her defeat was an indication that New Yorkers are not ready for a woman to lead the city, Quinn vehemently disagreed.

“There will be an amazing day where history gets made in this city and it will raise all of us higher,” she said. “It hasn’t happened yet, but we are a city that is not only capable of anything, we’ll eventually accomplish everything.”

Over the past week, New York City Democrats have been uniting behind de Blasio, galvanized by an apparently sense of urgency to retake City Hall for the Democratic Party for the first time in over two decades. De Blasio received the endorsement of Bill Thompson yesterday, as Thompson conceded the primary election although ballots remain to be counted. Thompson had for nearly a week insisted he would stay in the race until every vote had been counted.

According to unofficial results, de Blasio received 40.33 percent of the vote. Because he did not step down within 72 hours of the primary election, Thompson is technically still on the ticket until the Board of Elections determines whether de Blasio truly received 40 percent or more of the vote. If it turns out that he did not, a runoff will still take place.